Australian BookTok star STACEY MCEWAN’s has released a new slow-burn romantasy series tracing a fated pair who stumble upon a world-changing secret and are catapulted into a violent class war, finding each other amidst love, loss, and devasting betrayals.
Good Reading caught up with Stacey to find out more about A Forbidden Alchemy.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Nina Harrow and Patrick Colson are only twelve years old when they are whisked from their disenfranchised mining towns to dazzling Belavere City to be tested for magical abilities. Nina’s lifelong dream is to become an Artisan, a powerful elemental mage who fulfills the city’s grand ambitions, while Patrick wants only to return to his family of Craftsmen.
Together, they discover a devastating secret: Artisans aren’t born, but chosen. With this information, they take their future into their own hands. Patrick departs for home, while Nina finds her place as one of the rarest, most coveted types of Artisan.
When a Craftsman revolution ignites years later, Nina is captured by Patrick’s rebel group – and despite the years, he hasn’t forgotten her. In fact, he needs her help for a mission that could shift the tides against Belavere City, which she reluctantly accepts, battling the sparks between them. But when Nina’s first love reappears, asking her to betray Patrick for the Artisans, she faces an impossible choice that will determine the fate of their world.
MEET STACEY MCEWAN
What sparked the idea for A Forbidden Alchemy?
I could name any number of recent world events as the spark to a dystopian world. That, combined with my love for war fiction and romance, and the story became a bit of a runaway train. The world of Belavere Trench was very clear to me from the outset.
How did you go about creating Belavere City?
I started in the Brink, actually. Those disenfranchised parishes very much mimic the 98% of the population who lived impoverished and choking amidst the British Industrial Revolution. The town of Scurry might have been Aberfan or Northumberland. Kenton Hill was a different story. Its where the heart of the story lies and I didn’t want to give the reader the same dreary, grimy impression. I wanted Kenton Hill to be a little fantastical with a rugged, patch-work sort of charm to it. The antithesis to those, is of course Belavere City, which is opulent and shiny and perfect – a sort of manifestation of privilege.
What can you tell us about Nina and Patrick and their separate paths?
I see Nina as someone suffering for severe identity crisis. From the beginning we see her trying to reshape herself, define herself. She’s quite desperate to figure herself out, and more poignantly, to find love and belonging, and I don’t mean in the romantic sense. I mean in the most basic of ways a human needs love. Like most people deprived of love and belonging, they tend to mistake dependency and possession for love. They believe being used an useful is to be loved and loveable. Nina grows and regresses in those patterns in A Forbidden Alchemy.
As for Patrick (and you can consider me a Patrick apologist), he has grown with strong foundations of love and belonging, and so we see his goals and virtues are immediately different from Nina’s. But being fully immersed in the echo chamber of a small town, and having a very co-dependent family comes with its own drawbacks. As an adult Patrick is almost enslaved to the family mission, and to his town. This sort of indoctrination has led to a mindset not guided by morals, but by loyalty to the select few.
Another important difference between Nina and Patrick is the way they view revolution. Patrick sees it as the only answer to oppression because he does not think of himself alone. He thinks in terms of his family, his community, and the future of it. Nina has only ever lived in a state of self-preservation. I think this creates a dramatic difference in the way they view themselves and the world.
Nina becomes an Artisan – what can you tell us about her powers and her greater role in Belavere City?
Creating the magic system in this world started with Nina. I wanted her to become what she’d class as the “pinnacle” of elite high society, in much the way any young girl would dream of being a Queen without really considering the ramifications. But I knew those ramifications would become the true conflict of the story. So, I had an industrial world that was reliant on the mining of magic. What could be more useful than someone who had the power to move earth safely with nothing more than their mind? I could immediately see how making Nina an earth Charmer would not only make her a person of highest commodity, but turn her into a glaring target.
What was the most challenging part of creating this fantasy world?
Figuring out the differences and characteristics of both the bluff and the idium was a challenge. This underwent many changes before I felt truly happy with it and how it fit in with the story. I think its important to not only showcase what a magic system can do, but also what it can’t do, so it took a few passes to ensure I had strict differences between these two substances.
Who are some of your favourite romantasy writers / books?
I adore V E Schwab, Rebecca Robinson, Stephanie Garber and Adalyn Grace
Describe this book in three words.
Heartrending, tense, gritty.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stacey McEwan is the best-selling author of fantasy romance. Her books have been translated into four languages. Her high school English teacher once called her writing ‘above year level standard’ and she took it far too seriously. Stacey received a bachelor’s degree in education in 2012 and was a school teacher for 11 years.
She is a content creator on multiple platforms, including Tiktok and Instagram.
Stacey first published after book lovers of the internet encouraged her to share her story ideas.
She was born and raised on the Gold Coast, Australia, and still resides in her hometown with her husband, two children and one questionable dog.
0 Comments